SOS China Chapter 27

IV. How Jiang Zemin Uses the CCP to Persecute Falun Gong

By taking advantage of the CCP’s organizational principle that “the entire membership of the Party must be subordinated to the Central Committee,” Jiang Zemin exploited the state machinery controlled by the CCP to serve the objective of persecuting Falun Gong. The CCP-controlled apparatus includes the army, the media, public security personnel, the police, para-military police, state security forces, judicial system, the National People’s Congress, diplomatic personnel as well as sham religious groups. The army and para-military police, all of whom are controlled by the CCP, have directly taken part in the abduction and arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. The news media in China have assisted Jiang’s regime in spreading lies and smearing Falun Gong. The state security system has been exploited by Jiang Zemin personally in gathering and submitting information, fabricating lies, and falsifying intelligence. The National People’s Congress and the judicial system have put on the “legal” appearance and the garb of “rule of law” to justify crimes committed by Jiang Zemin and CCP, effectively deceiving people from all walks of life. They have turned themselves into an instrument for the service and protection of Jiang Zemin. At the same time, the diplomatic system has spread lies in the international community and enticed foreign governments, senior officials and international media with political and economic incentives so that they will remain silent regarding the issue of the persecution of Falun Gong.

During the Central Committee’s working conference, in which the suppression of Falun Gong was ordered, Jiang Zemin claimed, “I just don’t believe that the CCP can’t beat Falun Gong.” In planning the strategy of the suppression, three policies were put in place: “to ruin [Falun Gong practitioners'] reputations, bankrupt [them] financially, and destroy [them] physically.” A suppression campaign subsequently went into full operation.

Exploiting the Media to Block the Flow of Information

The policy of “ruining [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputations” has been carried out by the media, which are under the absolute control of the CCP. Starting on July 22, 1999, the third day into the campaign of arresting Falun Gong practitioners across the country, the CCP-controlled news media launched a full-scale anti-Falun Gong propaganda blitz. Take the Beijing-based China Central Television (CCTV) as an example. In the remaining months of 1999, CCTV spent seven hours a day broadcasting preprogrammed footage to spread lies about Falun Gong. Producers of these programs started by distorting and falsifying speeches by Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, then threw in cases of so-called suicide, murder, and death due to refusal of medical treatment. They did everything they could to smear and frame Falun Gong and its founder.

The most publicized case was removing the word “not” from what Mr. Li Hongzhi once said at a public event, that “The incident of the so-called explosion of the earth does not exist.” The CCTV program turned this statement into: “The explosion of the earth does exist,” Therefore claiming that Falun Gong spreads Doomsday theories. Subterfuge is also employed in order to mislead the public, for example transferring the offences of ordinary criminals to Falun Gong practitioners. A murder committed by the mentally deranged Fu Yibin in Beijing and a fatal poisoning by a beggar in Zhejiang Province were both blamed on Falun Gong. The CCP then uses the media to instigate hatred among the deceived public, justifying and seeking support for the unpopular, bloody persecution.

Over 2,000 newspapers, over 1,000 magazines, and hundreds of local TV and radio stations under the absolute control of the CCP became overloaded in their all-out propaganda smear campaign of Falun Gong. These propaganda programs were further spread to every other country outside of China via the official Xinhua News Agency, China News Services, H.K. China News Agency, and other CCP-controlled overseas media. Based on incomplete statistics, within only six months, over 300,000 news articles and programs smearing and targeting Falun Gong were published or broadcast, poisoning the minds of countless deceived people.

At overseas Chinese embassies and consulates, a large number of albums, CD’s, and publications criticizing and pretending to “expose” Falun Gong were on display. Special columns were set up on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website to criticize and “expose” Falun Gong.
In addition, at the end of 1999 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in New Zealand, Jiang Zemin completely dispensed with any pretence and handed out a pamphlet defaming Falun Gong to each and every one of the heads of state of more than ten countries attending the conference. In France, Jiang Zemin, in violation of the Chinese constitution, labeled Falun Gong as an “evil cult” to foreign media in order to “ruin [Falun Gong practitioners’] reputations.”

The black cloud of oppression choking the country signaled that something as drastic as the Cultural Revolution was about to start all over again.

The most despicable was the so-called “self-immolation” incident staged in January 2001, which was reported worldwide at unprecedented speed via Xinhua News Agency to frame Falun Gong. The incident has since been criticized by numerous international organizations, including the NGO International Education and Development Agency at the United Nations in Geneva, as a government-staged action meant to deceive people. During questioning, a member of the TV crew admitted that some of the footage shown on CCTV was in fact shot afterwards. The scoundrel nature of the oppressors is obvious. One can’t help but wonder how these “Falun Gong disciples facing death unflinchingly” (referring to the self-immolators) could be so cooperative with the CCP authorities so as to let them shoot the footage of self-immolation again.

No lies can survive the light of day. While spinning out rumors and fabricating lies, the CCP also has done everything in its power to block the flow of information. It has relentlessly suppressed any overseas reports on Falun Gong activities as well as any reasonable defense by Falun Gong practitioners. All Falun Gong books and other documents have been destroyed without exception. Extreme measures have been taken to guard against any foreign media attempts to interview Falun Gong practitioners in China, including expelling journalists from China, pressuring foreign news media, or forcing them to be silent by threatening to ban them from China.

As for the Falun Gong practitioners in China who have tried to transmit overseas the facts about Falun Gong and materials documenting inhumane suppression by the authorities, the CCP also has adopted extreme and brutal measures in suppressing them. Li Yanhua, a woman around 60, was from Dashiqian city, Lianning province. She was kidnapped by the police when handing out materials with information about the persecution of Falun Gong on February 1, 2001, and was beaten to death by the police. To cover up their crimes, the police said that she died from being “entranced by Falun Gong.”

At Tsinghua University alone, over a dozen teachers and students were given long prison terms for handing out materials on Falun Gong. After exposing the facts about the rape suffered in detention by Ms. Wei Xingyan, a Falun Gong practitioner and graduate student at Chongqing University, seven Falun Gong practitioners in Chongqing were charged and given long prison terms.

Imposing Fines and Ransacking Homes without Due Process

The entire state apparatus of the CCP has carried out a policy of “bankrupting [Falun Gong practitioners] financially.” In the more than five years since the start of the suppression, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been fined amounts ranging from thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan in efforts to intimidate them and cause them severe financial loss. With no justification whatsoever, local governments, work units, police stations and public security departments have arbitrarily imposed these fines. Those who are forced to pay the fines are not issued any receipts or referred to any articles of law for explanation. There is no due process.

Ransacking homes is another form of robbery and intimidation inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners. Those who have held firm in their belief have had to face unwarranted searches with the police ransacking their residence at any moment. Their cash and other valuables have been confiscated without justification. In the countryside, even stored grain and other food products have not been spared. Likewise, none of the items taken away from Falun Gong practitioners have been documented nor any receipts ever issued. Usually those who confiscate the practitioners’ property keep it for themselves.

At the same time, Falun Gong practitioners have also faced the penalty of being laid off. In the countryside the authorities have threatened to confiscate practitioners’ land. The CCP has not overlooked the elderly who are retired. Their pension plans have been terminated and the government has evicted them from their residences. Some Falun Dafa practitioners in business have had their properties confiscated and bank accounts frozen.

In carrying out these policies, the CCP took the approach of guilt by association. That is, if there were Falun Gong practitioners found in any particular work unit or state enterprise, the leaders and the employees of these units would not receive bonuses, nor would they get promoted. The goal is to instigate hatred against Falun Gong practitioners in society. Family members and relatives of Falun Gong practitioners also face the threat of dismissal from work, of having their children expelled from school, and of being evicted from their residences. All these measures serve the same purpose: cutting off all possible sources of income for Falun Gong practitioners in order to force them to give up their belief.

Brutal Acts of Torture and Wanton Killing

The gruesome policy of “destroying [Falun Gong practitioners] physically” has been primarily carried out by the police, procuratorate [11] and the court system in China. Based on statistics gathered by the Clearwisdom website, at least 1,143 Falun Gong practitioners have died from persecution in the last five years. The deaths have occurred in over 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities under the direct leadership of the central government. By October 1, 2004, the province recording the greatest number of deaths was Heilongjiang, followed by Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Sichuan, and Hubei. The youngest to die was only 10 months old, the oldest 82 years old. Women accounted for 51.3%. Those over 50 accounted for 38.8%. CCP officials have admitted privately that the actual number of Falun Gong practitioners who have died from persecution is much higher.

The brutal tortures used on Falun Gong practitioners are many and varied. Beating, whipping, electric shock torture, freezing, tying with ropes, handcuffing and shackling for extended periods, burning with open flame, lit cigarettes or hot irons, being cuffed and hung up, being forced to stand or kneel down for a long time, being jabbed with bamboo sticks or metal wires, sexual abuse, and rape are just a handful of examples. In October 2000, guards at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning province stripped the clothes completely off 18 female Falun Gong practitioners and threw them into the prison cells for male inmates to rape and abuse at will. All these crimes have been documented in full and are too numerous to list.

Another common form, among many, of inhumane torture is the abusive use of “psychiatric treatment.” Normal, rational, and healthy Falun Gong practitioners have been unlawfully locked up in psychiatric facilities and injected with unknown drugs capable of destroying a person’s central nervous system. Some practitioners, as a result, have suffered partial or complete paralysis. Some have lost the sight in both eyes or lost hearing in both ears. Some have experienced the destruction of muscles or internal organs. Some have lost part or all of their memory and become mentally retarded. The internal organs of some practitioners have been severely injured. Some have suffered complete mental collapse. Some even died shortly after being injected with the drugs.

Statistics indicate that cases of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted with “psychiatric treatment” have spread to 23 out of 33 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities under the direct leadership of the central government in China. At least 100 psychiatric facilities at the provincial, city, county or district level have engaged in the persecution. Based on the number and distribution of these cases, it is clear that the abuse of psychiatric drugs on Falun Gong practitioners has been a well-planned, systematically carried out, top-down policy. At least 1,000 mentally healthy Falun Gong practitioners were sent to psychiatric facilities or drug rehabilitation centers against their will. Many of them were forcibly injected or force-fed numerous drugs capable of destroying someone’s nervous system. These Falun Gong practitioners were also tied with ropes and tortured with electric shock. At least 15 of them died from excessive abuse alone.